During the first period of Latvian independence, citizens had an obligation to maintain the banks of their rivers and lakes to ensure their natural survival. An owner's responsibility for managing the water bodies on their land was enshrined in law. Voluntary clean-up events, such as those we organise today to save nature, were not necessary back then, because landowners regarded rivers and lakes as part of their wealth, alongside their fields and forests.

Today it is different – in nature conservation, there is a struggle between proponents of two approaches; one group says that everything must be protected and that humans should not intervene, while the others argue for protection through sensible management. Loreta and Andris Urtāns belong to the latter group.

“By doing nothing for our rivers and lakes, such a quantity of nutrients still flows into the water that has no business being there naturally. We are trying to mitigate the consequences caused by much larger-scale intervention.”